It's that time of the year again

It's not that I haven't seen the odd movie over the last few days, but I'm just too busy to say much about them as I prepare for the annual deluge of family and visitors.  Maybe before the end of the year I will be able to play catch-up.

Meanwhile happy, happy holidays to you all - PPP

House Calls (1978)

Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson made two films together of which this is the first (and probably the better).  He plays a recently widowed doctor and she a recent divorcee.  He's eager to play the field after years of fidelity, but after one night's mutually agreed sex, she challenges him to stop playing around or to give her up.  Her character is an opinionated motormouth, but he loves being with her; hospital politics nearly kill their relationship as he tries to help the senile director fight a lawsuit (and a brilliant turn by Art Carney here).  Their dating is completely charming as two older people prove that not only youngsters know how to romance.  There is one particularly hilarious bit when they attempt to prove whether or not it is possible to make love with one leg on the floor as the former Hollywood censor dictated.  Matthau was always good value in a film and nowadays one can forget what a gifted light comedienne Jackson was.  I think she brought a lot more happiness to a lot more people in movies like this than she ever has as an MP!

Namus - The Honour (1926)

Now here's a new taste thrill for Pretty Pink, an Armenian film made in 1926.  I must confess that I didn't follow all of it since the choice of intertitles was between some cyrillic script and German (in which I'm not exactly fluent).  However as far as I could tell it was about thrawted young love -- the girl having been pledged in childhood to a man she couldn't love (having already lost her heart to another) and her family being too proud to lose face and back down.  I think Namus means chastity or virginal maiden or some such -- I need to check this further.  Anyhow it all ended in tears before bedtime.  For such an old film, the print I viewed was in sparkling black and white and used a sophisticated collection of dissolves and close-ups, and it certainly provided a totally fascinating peek into a culture unknown to me.  In case you are wondering where I saw this, it was on German TV via satellite.  The one thing I'll say about the Germans is that their television offers a much better selection of films than ours, even if they do dub just about everything into their own language -- apart from silents, they appear to hate subtitles.

The Forgotten (2005)

This movie starring Julianne Moore started off like gangbusters with an intriguing premise -- she plays a mother whose son was killed in a plane crash about a year earlier and she continues to grieve.  However, slowly, proof that the son ever existed ceases to be available as his image disappears from family photographs and videos and as even her therapist, best friend and husband deny that there ever was such a person.  Since she is a decent actress, one identified with her plight and wondered where the story was going.  Then about two-thirds the way through came a plot development so far our of left field that my mouth was literally agape.  After that it just became more and more unbelievable as my flabber was ghasted, and by the end I couldn't care less.

Ultranova (2005)

This Belgian film at the ICA sounded much more interesting in the programme than it was in the viewing.  People joke about Belgium not producing much of note, but Magritte and Delvaux are two of my favourite modern painters, the beer and mussels are great, and I have seen a number of really quirky and memorable Belgian movies; unfortunately this was not one of them, despite its occasional oddities.  It was another non-linear close-up of empty lives in a desolate landscape with little hope of escape to the new beyond of the title. We had actually gone to the venue hoping to view the Italian giallo, "The Night Evelyn Came out of the Grave", a film which has eluded me for years which was scheduled to be shown after the above.  However they were unable to obtain a print and the showing was cancelled -- what a pity!

Other recent viewing

I have been a busy little bee since my return from New York, but none of my other recent viewing deserves a full paragraph:

Valentin (2002): This Argentinian film is the best of this bunch -- more a slice of life than anything.  The protagonist is a very sweet but very sharp young boy being raised by his grandmother, since his mother has done a runner and his father is too busy to care.  When she dies, he tries to bring together one of his father's exes and a kooky pianist who lives nearby, presumably in the hope that they will marry and adopt him.

White Chicks (2004): Good golly Miss Molly -- this is what passes for mainstream entertainment nowadays.  Two of the Wayans brothers (I sometimes think there are dozens in this talented family) are FBI agents in trouble with their boss who find themselves dragged up as two white heiresses.  The fact that they look exactly like two black men in drag is immaterial to the hardly credible plot.  I must confess that there was the occasional giggle, but not sufficient ones to excuse the idiocy of the concept.

Anacondas - Hunt for the Blood Orchid (2004):  With a title like that you can just about guess how stupid this film was.  It's a spin-off from the original giant snake film from a few years back which was equally bad, but with a B-list cast (not a D-list one like here). The first movie sticks in my memory indelibly for the over-the-top, histrionic, leering performance of Jon Voight.  I doubt if I will remember much of this one by next week.

Ring Of Bright Water (1969)

I am sorry to admit that I have never previously seen this film despite it being shown often on the box -- as an animal-lover Rachealcarol probably knows it well and probably loves it.  The DVD came free with one of the newspapers a few weeks back and I thought I should have a look before passing it to one of my grand-daughters.  Well I have, and I think I'll hold on to it for the time being since the story gets a little sad (a la Bambi), despite a supposedly upbeat ending, and they are still a little young for trauma.  As for the film, I thought the otter was very good.  I also thought that the scenery was well-photographed.  As for the leads, Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna, taking on wild-life leads after the Elsa films, she was better than he -- but I still preferred the otter to either of them.  Probably a good choice for slightly older kiddies.

De-Lovely (2004)

If all you know about Cole Porter is that he wrote the words and music to some of the greatest popular songs ever and that Cary Grant played him back in 1946 in "Night and Day", you only know part of his history.  An aristocratic type, he was also an avid homosexual -- something the earlier movie could not show.  His marriage was one of convenience and his wife was well aware of his proclivities.  His is actually quite a sad tale as he was crippled after a riding accident and lost his supportive wife to cancer.  The two main characters are played here by Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd, both of whom do a fine job with the material.  I was not terribly happy with the framing device which had Jonathan Pryce as a kind of recording angel looking back on Porter's life. The best part was the music with a selection of standards performed by various guest artists -- that some of them were presented in styles incompatible with the period of the film was a little jarring, but it was still great to hear these classics again.

The Dreamers (2003)

Apart from "1900", I have never been much of a fan of Bernardo Bertolucci (although I think "The Conformist" is pretty good).  His last few films come across like a dirty old man's daydream (to use the politer term) and seem to lust after nubile young flesh.  This movie set in Paris during the 1968 riots tells of a young American student who becomes friendly with brother and sister twins (their mother is English, hence their command of the language for the film is in English).  It was their mutual love of movies that brought them together and this part of the proceedings was obviously to my taste, but the story degenerated into a kind of love-in when the American moved in with them while their parents were away.  I actually found all three of them on the unattractive side and taking off their clothes (which was frequent) made them no more attractive to me.  I think the young French actress was chosen primarily for her figure -- an enormous pair of boobs on a skinny frame -- which the camera made love to as well.  It was all too self-indulgent for words.

Movies to watch on TV this Christmas (cont'd)

If you are limited to terrestrial TV and are not enchanted with the feeble selection of premieres, try BBC2 which is showing a whole bunch of classic films.  Of course they have all been on umpteen times, but if you have not seen any of the following (or fancy viewing one again) these are some of the best:

20th, afternoon - A Night at the Opera (the Marx Brothers at their zaniest); 2lst a.m. - The Sea Hawk (Errol Flynn doing his swashbuckling bit);  22nd a.m. - Gunga Din (boys' own adventure with Cary Grant); 22nd afternoon - Bringing up Baby (Grant again with the divine Katharine H); 24th, Noon - Black Narcissus (passions run high amongst the nuns); 24th, late - I Walked with a Zombie (poetic Lewton horror); 25th afternoon - A Star is Born (1954) (The best version with Garland and James Mason); 25th late - The Scarlet Empress (wonderful high camp with Marlene Dietrich); 26th afternoon - That's Entertainment (first of the three MGM compilations) plus The Philadelphia Story (Grant, Hepburn, Stewart = bliss); 29th afternoon - The Red Shoes (Powell & Pressburger masterpiece).

On other terrestrial channels I would also recommend Major Barbara Saturday afternoon on Channel 5 with a sparkling performance from Wendy Hillier and James Stewart with his six-foot rabbit in Harvey on ITV late on the 26th.  Channel 4 are showing Meet Me in St Louis on the afternoon of the 19th and Singin' in the Rain on Christmas day, but I guess everyone has seen these two several many times.

Have fun viewing -- and e-mail me if you want a capsule review of anything else that is on over the holiday period.

What films are on British TV this Christmas?

Not a lot from my point of view since I have seen every single one being shown on terrestrial and have the best ones in my permanent collection.  I will be watching Son of the Bride (Argentinian), Nowhere in Africa (German Oscar winner) and Winged Migration (nature doc) -- all on BBC4 and Confidences Trop Intimes on FilmFour, plus a couple of the premieres on Sky Movies.

If you do have access to satellite or freeview do not miss the Buster Keaton shorts and features on Sky Cinema (afternoons 19th-23rd, or a day later on Cinema 2).  While people divide into Keaton vs. Chaplin (I am in the first camp), if you have not previously seen them do try the Chaplins on Artsworld -- The Great Dictator on the 23rd, Modern Times on the 27th and Limelight (brilliant -- and Keaton is in it) on the 30th.  Other silents worth seeing are Battleship Potemkin on BBC4 on the 17th and Pandora's Box with the luminous Louise Brooks on FilmFour on the 24th late.

As for the terrestrial premieres they are a sorry bunch with a lot of seasonal dreary television movies.  The best of the bunch are The Man who Wasn't There (Channel 4 late on the 24th), Toy Story 2 (BBC1 Christmas Day) and 8 Women (good French fun with a terrific cast) on Channel 4 late on the 30th.  Also late on the 30th is Insomnia on BBC1, but it is not a patch on the Norwegian original.  The other heavy-hitters: Minority Report, The Shipping News and Signs kind of left me cold.

To be continued since I have already been disconnected once while preparing this.

Strip Search (2004)

I have just finished watching this Home Box Office cable movie directed by Sidney Lumet and I feel that I have been repeatedly hit over the head as the same points were hammered home.  In a way it is surprising, given the current political climate, that this picture was ever made since it deals with the loss of civil liberties.  It opens in China where student Maggie Gyllenhaal is arrested and dragged off for questioning by an unfeeling flunkey without any indication of her crime.  At this stage we are meant to think that this is the sort of thing that can happen in undemocratic parts of the world.  However the scene moves to New York where an arab student is similarly grabbed and questioned by Glenn Close.  To reinforce the similarities between the two scenarios, exactly the same dialogue is spoken as the inquisition moves back and forth between the locales.  Both suspects are subjected to badgering, humiliation and a strip search until they realise that they no longer have any rights.  One regime is as inhuman as the next and it is all done in the name of national security.  The film was a heavy-handed way of getting this message across, but it certainly made its point.